Educational Part - Student Festival

Student Festival

The ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts has invited applications for its first Student Festival in Segovia. It will be part of the 35th ITI World Congress and is called the Congress Prologue. The festival will manifest the new Network’s values of deep cross-cultural exchange, inclusivity, artistic integrity and experimentation, and pedagogical innovation. There are a dozen universities that have applied to be part of this unique international Student Festival.

The theme of the Festival is tied to theme of this year’s ITI World Congress: “Act! Performing Arts Transforming the World”.

Given UNESCO’s and ITI’s mission and long-time commitment to promoting mutual understanding and peace, the Congress will provide an opportunity to reflect on the nature of theatre and its deep connection to acting, action and activism, and to collaboratively shape actions for the future. We gather at a time characterized by so many global challenges -- migration and the global refugee crisis; war and conflict; poverty and economic disparity; polarization and political strife; climate change and environmental catastrophe; repression and human rights abuses.

The participating universities have been selected. The programme of the Student Festival consists of performances and joint sessions. Moreover the students will be able to participate workshops, master classes and collaborative sessions where they can share their stories, artistic approaches, hopes, fears, dreams and visions.

The students and their leaders participating in the Student Festival are encouraged and enabled to stay for the rest of the Congress (17 to 22 July) to participate in further workshops, masterclasses and collaborative sessions. This second part of the students´ participation will culminate in a final work presentation / performance.
The Student Festival is scheduled for Friday to Sunday, 14 to 16 July.
The students collaborative work and participation in the congress activities: Monday to Saturday, 17 to 22 July.
Final student collaborative work presentation / performance: Friday, 21 July, afternoon.
Location of the Students Festival and final presentation / performance: La Carcel, Centro de Creacion, a historic women’s prison converted into a beautiful, thriving cultural centre.
Some of the performances may happen at other locations in Segovia.

More information is in development.

Participating Higher Education Institutions

These are the higher education institutions that are participating in the Student Festival with a performance. There might be more members of the Network participating without performances and/or students:
• Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA
• Shanghai Theatre Academy, China
• University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
• Academia Teatro Dimitri, Verscio, Switzerland
• Naropa University, Boulder, Colorado, USA

About the Network

ITI / UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts
The ITI/UNESCO Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts is a joint initiative of UNESCO and ITI together with more than 20 higher education and research institutions. It is built in alignment with the guidelines and procedures of the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chair and Network Program. The Network´s main focus is higher education in the performing arts – drama, theatre, dance, music theatre, playwriting and all related performing arts disciplines.

The permanent address for the Network is at ITI, UNESCO, in Paris. The two coordinators / directors are Gong Baorong from the Shanghai Theatre Academy and Derek Goldman from the Georgetown University in Washington, DC. The president is the DG of ITI, Tobias Biancone. The two vice presidents are Jeffrey Sichel and Sun Huezhou. The Information Centre is based at the Konstantin Raykin School for Higher Education in Moscow.

The Network is a non-profit organization. It is non-political in its nature. It welcomes members from all continents, independent of their socio-economic condition, race, religion, ethnicity, gender, culture and nationality. The Network is based on democratic principles and it follows the core values of collaboration, inclusiveness, transparency and inspiration.

The goals of the Network for Higher Education in the Performing Arts are:
• To make education in the performing arts accessible to all populations of students regardless of socio-economic condition, race, religion, ethnicity, gender, culture or nationality.
• To promote the professional education in the performing arts worldwide for the enhancement of the skills of professionals in the field.
• To exchange knowledge and best practices on different methodologies for education in the performing arts.

• To develop and share innovative models for higher education in the performing arts.
• To support higher education in the performing arts all over the world, including developed and developing countries – with a special focus on Africa, in alignment with the UNESCO global priority “Africa”.
• To initiate collaboration between the members of the Network.
• To protect and promote unique manifestations of “cultural identity” as observed and demonstrated by members of the network from their cultures – in alignment with the UNESCO Convention on the Protection and the Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions.
• To create a project to designate and preserve Intangible Heritage in the Performing Arts globally – in alignment with UNESCO and ITI.
• To advocate for peace, mutual understanding and respect through education in the performing arts – in alignment with the goals of UNESCO and ITI.
• To bring together students and educators in the performing arts and professionals of the performing arts for the benefit of the profession.

Objectives
To reach these goals the Network can realize the following projects or activities – initiated and organized by its members or part of its members, regionally or internationally: school festivals, conferences, congresses (whenever possible in conjunction with the ITI World Congress), exchange programmes for educators and students of the network, research projects, intangible heritage research and preservation activities – in conjunction with UNESCO and ITI, dissemination of knowledge in print or via digital and audio-visual publications, exhibitions, competitions, awards, and any other event or activity which supports the goals of the Network.
www.iti-worldwide.org/highereducation.html